Cost of the US Program Amounted to over USD 20m for Raiffeisen

Cost of the US Program Amounted to over USD 20m for Raiffeisen

Pierin Vincenz, currnet CEO of Raiffeisen Bank in Switzerland, gave an interview to La Tribune de Geneve. He will retire in October and be replaced by Patrick Gisel who has been working with him for 14 years.

Pierin Vincenz runs through the achievements of his bank in the last few years. There he notes that the participation in the US Program that was launched in August 2013 costed the bank over USD 20m. The full assessment of the 4million customers was processed. He insist that at no time there was a plan to collect undeclared money from wealthy Americans who were hiding assets from the tax authorities (IRS). In this regard, a good evidence is that Raiffeissen’s Terms & Conditions were never translated into English.

As a reminder, Raiffeisen announced itself under Category 3 of the US Program. Category 3 banks are those that believe they have not engaged in activities that could have breached US law. An Independent Examiner (e.g. U.S. or Swiss law firm or accountant) needs to verify this.

Information about the total managed U.S. assets need to be provided by these banks as well as a confirmation that effective compliance programs are in place.

They do not need to pay a penalty but the handling costs endured by fulfilling the requirements of the Program is born by these banks.